We are a positive and profitable story out of India, for India - Rohan Verma, CEO, MapMyIndia
In an exclusive conversation with YourStory, MapmyIndia's CEO Rohan Verma talks about the company's plans around its initial public offering.
The Made in India digital mapping company C.E. Info Systems which operates , has fixed a price band of Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,033 a share for a Rs 1,040 crore of its initial public offering (IPO) set to open on December 9. The three-day bidding period will be concluding on December 13.
Currently, the promoters and promoter group owns 61.7 percent stake in the company, which would stand reduce to 53.72 percent after the IPO.
In an exclusive conversation YourStory had with Rohan Verma, Chief Executive Office, C.E. Info Systems, said;
"I joined the company when I was 19 and been involved in MapmyIndia for 17 years, and we see at least a 25 year journey. And going public is natural extension of the journey. We are excited and feel very responsible, and looking forward to the opportunities and challenges."
MapmyIndia filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) on August 31, and received the approval 10 days back. The home-grown navigation firm had also announced a partnership with industry body Drone Federation of India to launch and fund 'Drone Innovation Challenge' in August this year.
The startup had also invested an undisclosed sum in ChargeUp, a Delhi-based startup working to build Bharat’s largest battery-swapping network for e-rickshaws.
MapmyIndia Founders Rakesh Verma and Rashmi Verma took a big gamble to put maps online. When their business was started as CE Infosystems was started in 1995, India did not have a map-reading culture like the US.
But Rakesh and Rashmi believed the digital maps market in India would boom, and 80 percent of all data would have a location component. The couple started the company with Rs 50 lakh they saved while working in the US at General Motors and IBM.
Today, MapmyIndia Move app, among the winners of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge, offers a detailed house number level map search, compatibility with India's own satellite imagery service from ISRO's Bhuvan, real-time traffic and safety-based navigation and more.